


Why did it sound so familiar when you said my name?

by Evitcani



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 15:49:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13860978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evitcani/pseuds/Evitcani
Summary: Taako is doing homework while a party rages behind him. Kravitz is passing by. They meet over a frozen lake under an open sky.It can only get better from here.





	Why did it sound so familiar when you said my name?

**Author's Note:**

> This was a Candlenights gift from our dropped requests. Enjoy!

The night started slow, like it always did. Wind lifted what was left of autumn from the trees and swept them across the park path. Despite the wind, it was warm under the last rays of the balmy sunset. The park was nestled right up against one of the frat houses that spilled music and lights on greenery. Taako narrowed his eyes at the pond in front of him and tried not to get distracted by the people chattering as they walked to the party or the the party itself. 

That had been the last _two hours_ of his life.

The music didn’t exactly evoke the serene qualities of the moon his spellbook demanded. He hissed in frustration as he ran his finger across the chalk circle. Wrong _again_. 

“Fuck,” he snarled and whipped out his phone, biting the nail of his thumb as he googled another picture of what it was supposed to look like. “Fucking stupid magic art class,” he ranted under his breath. “I’d go to the fucking party, too, if I could use homework files to cheat my way out of it.”

“Frat and friends only party anyway,” someone said behind him. Taako froze and turned. Some guy was standing there, watching him and sipping from a red solo cup. Taako had seen him around the campus a few times. The guy had on one of said frat’s sweaters, [_Caput Mortuum Water Gold_](https://darkbooks.org/photos/Alchemical-And-Hermetic-Emblems-2/Alchemical-Symbols.html), with the collar of a button-up underneath peeking out the top. He pointed at Taako’s circle. “You need help with the homework?”

 _Macallister Kravitz_ , Taako thought and squinted at him suspiciously. That was this guy’s name. A pretty face that always stuck out in the commons. He couldn’t remember where or how he’d learned it. “You even in this class, homie?” 

Kravitz cracked a smile and walked forward so he was at least partially in Taako’s lantern light. “No, but I do tutor it,” he offered and swished the contents of his cup. 

“I’m broke as shit and I’m sure the department ain’t payin’ for party overtime,” Taako said carefully, glaring at Kravitz in continued suspicion. He did his best to avoid most of the hoity and toity on campus. Kravitz was most certainly both of those things. 

Kravitz snorted and sat down cross-legged outside Taako’s wobbly ritual circle. “It’s funny,” he started, setting aside his cup. “It’s almost like I didn’t once mention money when I asked if you needed help.” He leaned over the circle and flipped back a few pages in the spellbook open on Taako’s lap. Pausing, he looked up at Taako from under his lashes, lips parted prettily in a way that reminded Taako exactly why he stuck out in a crowd. “Unless you can do this on your own?”

There was a casual, biting implication that Taako _couldn’t_. 

Taako rolled his eyes and grabbed Kravitz’s hand, lifting it away from his spellbook. “I don’t need sloppy, drunk help by some frat dude’s condescending goodwill, my guy,” he said easily and picked back up his chalk. 

“I’m drinking water,” Kravitz laughed and sat back, clearly not going anywhere. 

“Well ain’t you a stick in the mud,” Taako sighed, started to try to redraw the complicated lines. 

“It’s Mickey Mouse,” Kravitz told him, taking another sip of his water. 

“What,” Taako glared up. 

“Squint at the text again. The symbol looks like Mickey Mouse,” Kravitz elaborated and tossed his cup in the air. It disappeared in a small flash of light and fairy dust. 

Huffing, Taako glanced down at his book. If he kind of turned his head, it—. _Oh_ , there it was. Mickey Mouse in profile with a couple of odd lines around his ears. He shot Kravitz a dirty look for being right, but Kravitz just smirked back at him. A splash of water from the pond with a wave of his hand to erase the spot and fire from his palm to dry it. He started again, tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth. 

“You’re _Taako_ , right?”

“Sure thing, bubala,” he answered distractedly. 

“We’ve had a couple classes together and—.”

“Mhm,” Taako mumbled and sat back. Damn this guy, but at least he’d finally gotten the last symbol to be serviceable. 

“Would you want to, I don’t know—. I’m just sort of spit-balling here, hah, I uh—.” Taako saw Kravitz’s hands gesturing wildly out of the corner of his eyes before he closed them. He positioned his hands in meditation and took a deep breath. “If you’re free tomorrow, Taako, would you, I don’t know—.”

“Shh,” he hushed him, not really sure what the guy was saying anyway. “I’m trying to concentrate. Ask me whatever you gotta after.”

“Oh, right.”

Taako sent his magic out and caught on the chalk. He stilled, listening to the music wash away to crickets chirping and frogs croaking and Kravitz breathing so nearby. Breathing, in and out and in and out and—. Something was wrong, missing. It nearly sent Taako out of his trance. He folded his magic inward like kneading dough and listened. 

In and out and in and out and in and out. Taako heard his own breathing, his own heart beat slowing as he brought himself out of his own body. The world went silent besides their breathing and Taako’s heartbeat. Taako could only see himself, meditating, the pond, Kravitz watching from the grass. Everything else was void too empty to even name as darkness. 

In and out and in and out and in and out. 

What was missing? Shaking his head, Taako tried to stop searching for it. He turned his mind back to the spell he’d fixed in his heart. With both silvery hands, he cupped the spell he slowly pulled from his chest and took it to the water. In a moment of weakness, he glanced back at Kravitz.

Kravitz met his eyes. 

He nearly dropped the spell right there, but pushed through it, managing to stay standing on the bank with it curled close to his chest. “You can see?” 

The spell cried softly, a muted mewl. Kravitz pressed his fingers to his lips and pointed at the water. It lit up as if on command, spirits swarming against the surface as if they might break the tension themselves. They came in all shapes and colors; beautiful maidens swimming backwards, the ghosts that’d formed here from stories of hauntings screaming and thumping their hands against a surface they’d never break with the summer days of picnics and lovers taking shape as brightly colored fish swimming around them soothingly. They didn’t like to wait once someone had their attention. Taako frowned, but knelt by the pond and gently slipped his fingertips past the surface. The spell slid in without a splash and Taako stood, satisfied. 

The spell swam among the spirits and stirred them. It grew and grew and grew on their excitement until it flipped out of the water as a mongoose. 

Kravitz covered a laugh behind him. 

Taako turned and shot him a glare. “Yeah, my dude, you got a better magic guide?” 

“Mine’s a raven,” Kravitz grinned and leaned his elbows on his knees. Taako’s mongoose was now running across the surface of the water, scattering light around it. “Yours is cute. It’s surprising, is all.” 

Cute, Taako thought to himself and pursed his lips. “Why surprising? What kinda guy didja pin me as, handsome?” 

“A songbird,” he smiled back easily in a way that made Taako’s connection to his body start to thrum rapidly in time with his heart. “Free, flashy, a bit adventureous.” He paused and looked over at Taako’s real body. “Pretty.” He flashed Taako an awkward grin that didn’t at all match the confidence he’d said it with. 

_Yeah_ , Taako thought he could see this man as a raven. Maybe himself as a songbird, too. He tugged on his heartstring and opened his eyes. The music flooded his senses for a moment and he scowled. Kravitz wasn’t looking at him, he was looking up at whatever had formed across the lake. As were a few people who’d been passing by. 

_Right_. 

Taako grabbed his camera and jumped to his feet, spellbook landing awkwardly on the concrete. He turned to snap a picture and paused, jaw slack as he looked up at what his magic had made. Kravitz stood up and walked past him, tapping his foot on the frozen lake. When it held, he stepped onto it more readily and turned with a laugh. 

Taako snapped a picture of him. Above him in the photograph, delicate ice ravens were frozen as they swooped and played with songbirds, shining with an inner glow that colored the ice in pale colors. Beneath his feet, the ice had been dyed to the bottom with a similar motif. The camera caught Kravitz’s smile as if he was suspended in the sky. 

After a few more snapshots, Kravitz held out his hands to Taako. Taako – figuring he’d finished his homework anyway – decided [the music from the frat](https://youtu.be/ku16PsxpZGU) was just right for this kind of impromptu dance between the spokes of birds bursting from the ice. They spent as much time falling on their asses as actually skating, but all of it laughing. 

At least, that’s how they remembered it the next day over coffee and a shared slice of cake.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow my [Tumblr](https://evitcani-writes.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Evit_cani).


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